Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I can't believe I almost forgot that I celebrated another birthday in September.

The girls/twins/ladies turned one on September 24th.

Katie's face is priceless

It's hard to believe that it has already been one year since I updated the ladies. And I'll still make the claim it was the best decision I've ever made with my lasik eye surgery coming in a close second.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Thanks to all those who donated to my fundraising efforts!
The Walk was on a perfect Fall NYC night and it was a ton of fun to boot.

Part of Team Lord & Taylor at the Finish Line

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The only off putting part of the walk was getting there and having to walk though the Occupy Wall Street Protesters march. They were just obnoxious, annoying and asked if we wanted to join their protest. Um.. No! And besides that they decided to march through downtown on the same day/night as the LLS Light the Night walk where our walking paths would somewhat converge. How selfish & gross. I don't think they wanted to come into the starting area and see all the greedy corporations donationing thousands of dollars to a lifesaving cause. (Sorry tangent, can you tell I think that Occupy Wall Street is stupid and they should just go away and occupy some place else?)

If you've been to my apartment you've walked by a framed piece of aluminium with a picture of a B-52 Bomber from WW2.

(sorry not the best picture)

That piece of aluminium is a piece of my Great Uncle Blake's plane that was shot down by the German's in France during WW2.

The Chow-hound crew

Below are pictures from after the crash of the Chow-hound:

The wing of the plane

When my Parents and Uncle Mark went to France in 2009 they brought back pieces of the plane for our family to cherish and keep forever this piece of history.

On Sunday, September 25th the wing of the Chow-hound was returned to the United States from France. It landed at McGuire AFB in New Jersey and my Granny, Uncle Blake, Uncle Mark, Uncle Dave & Jen were there to welcome the Men & Women who went to France to retrieve the wing of the plane.

The wing 67 years later

Granny w AF Dudes

My Mother and Uncle Mark worked diligently with a group of Norman's to bring the wing back to the US. I think its just amazing that my family has such a special part in American and French/Norman history. The next steps is for the wing to be displayed in the hanger where the men and women who protect our freedom leave for deployment out of McGuire AFB. I think that's pretty amazing and totally awesome.

The reasons the Travel Gods hate me is that I went home for a special long weekend to celebrate my Mother. For her "special" weekend all she wanted was all her children home together (there is only two of us, but with Ian's family and me living in NYC we make if very difficult).

Friday we took our new family pictures (images to come). I'm not sure where Mom & Dad is going to hang this new picture since the wall going up the staircase is full of our family pictures from my childhood and our last family picture is next to the front door. There isn't much wall space left. After family pictures we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant Tony Jacal's for a delicious dinner. Even better for Jackson since he got to actually meet "Tony"; who really isn't Tony but the husband of the woman who owns the restaurant but Jackson thinks he's Tony. Tony has been dead for over 40 years but Jackson doesn't need to know that. Jackson talked off "Tony's" ear what we think was about how much he loves eating at Tony's. Jackson thought meeting Tony was jut so cool, it totally made his night.

Ian & Makenzie

Saturday was a fabulous day! I got to spend the afternoon having some Mommy, Daddy & me time, which was exactly what I needed. It was so nice to have some special time to catch up with my parents on what's going on in my life and just talk.
We went to lunch at 3rd Corner in the Encinitas Lumber Yard (yum!) and then walked around downtown Encinitas, which my parents haven't done since they lived there over 30 years ago. Then we took the coast and headed down to Cedros Ave in Solana Beach and continued are walk around little shops. The coolest little adventure was finding an Olive Oil tasting store from a Olive Plantation (is that what they are called?) and we tasted some pretty interesting Oils.

I let Kenzie climb the stairs; I'm such a good Auntie

Saturday Night was Mom's "special celebration" at the Furgerson's. Scott & Paula made an amazing dinner and for Mom I think it was the perfect way to celebrate her "39th" birthday. The dinner was filled with laughs and great conversation which equals lots of wine bottles and good times.

Grandpa & Kenzie

Me & Meghan

Me & My Mommy

Sunday morning I helped my Dad make pigs in a blanket and eggs for breakfast. And we all chilled around for a while in our PJs. Then Mom & I went to Kohls so I could get some new Charger's gear and my In-n-Out (yay!) for lunch.
But by far the best part of Sunday was the sunset hot air balloon ride. It was the most amazing experience. We soared up to 5000 ft above sea-level, above the clouds and the noise. Watching the sunset was breathtaking and coming through the clouds on the descent was totally awesome. Now the landing was another thing. Apparently it was our pilot's toughest landing of the year, we clipped a tree and almost slid off an embankment. I was laughing the entire time while I think everyone else was almost shitting themselves. The landing felt like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland; the bumps, jolts, sudden stop. Overall so amazing.

About to take off

Mom & Dad

Church of the Nativity (the one on the left)

Ian & Teresa

Descent into the clouds....

Then it was off to dinner and then home to pack because I had to leave bright and early Monday morning.

Monday. It was rough to wake up so early and finish packing. Hardest was saying goodbye to my Mom and actually walking into the airport. I wasn't ready to leave SD, I could have stayed one more day.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

As many of you know the Travel Gods do not like me, especially when I'm traveling for pleasure.

This travel woe begins as I was leaving to go home to San Diego for my Mother's "special weekend". My normal mode of transportation to the airport, NJ Transit but of course on this particular day the trains stalled in between NJ and Penn Station and there were 45 minute delays in and out of the city. Well, that just isn't going to work so I go with the next best option was the bus. The last time I took the bus (train delays, wtf NJT) it was pretty easy to negotiate and about the same time to airport as the train. So this time I figured it would be the same easy experience this time.
So...
I left work at the same time I would for the train (OK, so maybe that was the first wrong idea) and everything was going well till all the tourists got on the bus at Times Square. Apparently paying for a ticket and getting on a bus is a difficult task. We're finally off and we only have to go through one light to get into the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel, but wait it can't be that easy. Thanks to the UN & Obama being in town we sat at the same light for 30 minutes (OK, so second mistake forgetting about the added traffic they bring). Hello anxiety! I was in desperate need of a zanex. My flight is scheduled to start boarding in 30 minutes and we haven't even left the island of Manhattan yet. I think my heart my was going to explode. Insert me frantically texting my Mother.
Another 5 minutes then the bus driver starts getting creative and we head into the Port Authority bus terminal so he can use the bus entrance to the tunnel. Once we get into the tunnel entrance I figure out that there is no actual traffic getting into the tunnel at all, so WTF was up with the random traffic at the f#*king light? I blame stupid drivers and Obama for unnecessary traffic blunders.
We blow through the tunnel and head into Newark Airport, its now 4:50ish and my flight leaves at 5:15pm. But of course my terminal is the last terminal and its la-di-da as we get into the airport drop off area and I'm freaking out inside.
I finally get inside the terminal and I start running. I hit the security check point and asked the TSA agent if I could cut the line, she told me to run around to another security check in that had less people and I would actually be closer to my gate. So take off with my giant duffle bag running around the air port check in counters to the other side and she was right there were only 5 others in line. Breeze through the ID check and my fellow passengers let me cut them through the security check.
And I'm off running from gate 70 to my gate 84. I think I ran into at least 5 people with my bag and when I got close to the gate there was an agent waiting at the edge. She asked if I was going to San Diego and because I couldn't actually talk I just knotted my head. The agent checked me and I made it to the gate at 5:10pm. Even better there was actually one person who arrived to the gate after me.

See the Travel Gods hate me, they don't make anything easy for me. I literally thought I was going to miss my flight and I know that I'm not good at handling set backs like that (do I have to remind you of the Vegas/Delta debacle?). But Thank God I made the flight and it was an easy one at that.